It is well known in the art that gold, silver, palladium and platinum bullion products are a common way of owning precious metal. Bullion products are priced according to their net weight, plus a small premium based on supply and demand.
The troy ounce (ozt) is a unit of imperial measure. In the present day, it is most commonly used to gauge the weight and therefore the price of precious metals. One troy ounce is equivalent to 31.1034768 grams. Accordingly, the minimum net weight of a 1-oz bullion product must reflect the purity of the material. For example:                99.99%=31.1066 grams        99.9%=31.1346 grams        91.67% (22 carats)=33.9298 grams        
Typically, a mint is an industrial facility which manufactures coins for currency, and other related products. A recent study carried out by the Applicant, done on 1-oz gold and silver bullion products from the most reputable mints of the world, reveal that these mints “giveaway” a considerable amount of extra precious metal in order to ensure the minimum legal trade weight being required. This major problem is not only limited to traditional mints in that, it has also been found by the Applicant that various other products (for example, blanks, finished products, ingots, bars, etc.) made of solid precious metal, such as gold, silver, platinum, palladium, etc., when manufactured, processed, distributed and/or sold by different entities throughout the world, such as furnishers, refiners, smelters, and the like, always have a considerable amount of excess weight than the official weight indicated in the final form that they are commercialized in (for example, when they are being sold, etc.).
This excess or extra weight, referred to herein as “giveaway”, given that there appears to be no universally—common known term having been assigned thereto in the industry, due to the fact this problem has never been addressed, has literally been given away, for decades if not centuries, without any second thoughts.
However, when considering the high value of precious metals, the high demand for bullion products, and the enormous volume of products being manufactured by the different mints for example, on a yearly basis, this results in literally millions of dollars being wasted each year, by simply giving this extra weight of precious metals away, particularly in the case of smaller products where the percentage of giveaway material tends to be even higher with respect to the nominal value (i.e. minimum allowed weight of legal trade) indicated on the product. Thus, in the case of “smaller” products (ex. less than 100 ozt), the percentage of the value of giveaway material being simply given away tends to be much greater with respect to the value at which the product is being sold.
For example, extensive studies carried out by the Applicant have shown that for 1-ozt silver round coins (99.99% purity) being produced, there can be quite often about 600 mg of giveaway material per product (that is, instead of weighing the required 31.1066 grams, the final products can weigh up over to 31.700 grams), and in the case of 1-ozt gold round coins (22 carats) being produced, there is up to 80 mg of giveaway material per product.
Unfortunately, this problem of giveaway material seems to have never been properly addressed, and the conventional processes that exist today for manufacturing or processing mint products and/or other analogous products do not enable to resolve this very critical giveaway problem.
Hence, in light of the aforementioned, there is a need for an improved system or method which, by virtue of its design and components, would be able to overcome or at least minimize some of the aforementioned prior art problems, in that, it would be very useful to have a technology that is capable of reducing and recovering giveaway material on products being manufactured or processed.